Chapter 25 – Harry!
I was first out of our Black Stone and the first face I saw was… Harry! I hurried to Harry and wrapped my arms around him, both because I needed to leave space for others to leave the Stone, but most importantly, because I was badly in need of a Harry snog.
"I didn't expect to find you here. I thought you'd be at the Ministry, governing."
"It's nine at night. We just fought a battle. Vili came through the Stone. We were hiding Adrienne and her son on the pyramid floor. Here or the Ministry is the strongest defensive position. Vili came through with two pals. The pals are dead. Vili tried to pass back through the Stone, but it rejected him – with emphasis. He then Apparated away from the position where he fell. He was badly wounded. I don't know how quickly he can recover. He left only half an hour ago."
"We must pursue him to the pyramid between worlds. He's probably gone, but we shouldn't miss the chance."
I told my forces that we possibly had one more fight – with Vili. Larry lent several aurors and we marched through the Black Stone into the world-between-worlds. The lights came on. I asked the Black Stone about Vili. He had passed, moving very slowly. He was traveling to the exits to other worlds. We sprinted to the portal; I used my Mother ring; we were all ready to fire as the silver door slid open. There was nobody behind it. We carefully entered the passage to the exits to other worlds. I saw Vili. I hugged the wall as he pointed and fired a curse at us. I fired back. Aagog and the other spiders climbed to the ceiling and raced after him. I reached for both Black Stones and fired the strongest 'Off!' I could manage. I probably should have used 'Kill!' but worried that Odin couldn't handle two deaths in the family on the same day. The 'Off!' jolted him, but he turned and continued to drag himself toward the exits. Hermione and Barb had raced to my side.
"Triple 'Off!' Hermione suggested.
"Are you both plugged into both Stones for power," I asked.
"I am now. One, two, three, Now!"
We all shouted 'Off!' at the top of our lungs. We had found that this helped. The Stone link helped our synchronicity. A lash of green energy shot from the point where our wands touched and struck Vili in the back of his head. He crumpled forward. I took a moment to clear my head. I shook my arm until feeling returned. Yes, there had been some blowback. Hermione looked fine. Barb's was hunched over with her hands on her ears.
"Relax and takes calm breaths. Hermione and I will feed Stone energy into you."
After half a minute, Barb said "I'm fine, go goop Vili, so he doesn't escape. You might want to make sure he isn't dead."
Hermione and I followed by the mob walked up to the heap on the stone floor, which was Vili. We couldn't see him, until we got right up to him, because he was surrounded by three big Acromantula, with Aagog sitting on his neck.
"We bite?"
"No, I think we must deliver him alive to Odin. We'll goop him, then you can cover him in spider silk. He really looks much the worse for wear. His skin is burnt in places. Maybe you should spin first, the spider silk may be good for his skin. I asked Hermione about her burn potion. She reminded me that we had used the last of it."
I reached through the Black Stone for Yggdrasil and Odin. I reached Yggdrasil at once and Odin just moments later. I told him we had Vili. He had invaded our world and our defenders had almost killed him. We had 'Off!'ed him before he could escape. Odin needed to come at once, with whatever potions he used to treat burns.
"We're in the pyramid-between-worlds. Vili was limping toward the exits to other worlds. I don't know which world was his destination, but we can bring him through the Asgard exit within ten minutes."
"That is excellent. I will meet you there."
We spent several more minutes strategically gooping the already cocooned Vili. He wasn't going to be able to point at anyone. A levitation spell and we guided him to the portal, which exited upon my Asgard lands.
"Wands ready! Odin should be here to greet us when the door opens, but I'm taking no chances."
The door dropped into the floor. Odin greeted us. We quickly lowered our wands and steered Vili out onto Asgard.
"I know you want to be home. I'll take it from here. I have the correct potions and my Elves will help me. Thank you for not killing him. I hope I can save him. What injuries has he sustained? Did a spider bite him?"
"No bite," Aagog reported.
One of Harry's aurors supplied the information I could not "I'm reporting, because Ginny and her group arrived after the main battle was over. He arrived with two friends and seized Adrienne and the child. Adrienne kneed him in his privates, then put her wand up against his head for the 'Avada Kedavra'. That staggered him and Adrienne and her son escaped his grasp. Quite a few of us fired a lot of curses: 'Petrificus Totalis', 'Off!', 'Avada Kedavra', and 'Kill' were the ones I heard. He got a few sword slashes – the one to his left leg drew blood. Two of the soldiers hit him with flame throwers and several with rifle fire. He tried to walk through the Black Stone, but it threw him back. He collapsed on the floor and Apparated away."
I picked up the story. "We found him dragging himself toward the exit portals. We fired several 'Off's to almost no effect. We then dropped him with a triple-'Off!' I would guess that's good for another several hours, at least, but Frijjo pretty much faked being greatly affected by that curse. I can't guarantee he's out, but he is well enough gooped that he won't be pointing at anyone."
"Thank you for the report. I'll tend to Vili. I'll contact you and let you know how well he recovers."
"Do you want your stone back, so you can take him back to his cell? That would be safest."
"I have not decided if that is what I want to do. He is all the family I have left. Either in his cell, or under my watch at Valaskjalf, he and I will have a long talk. I don't need the stone back, I have Frijjo's and I've figured out how she altered it. It should work for me. To be safe, I'll have Yggdrasil contact the intelligence, before I try to approach the fortress. Goodbye, and I'm sorry my family keeps causing so much trouble for you. After I fix Vili, I am going to need to find out whom his accomplices were, so please preserve the bodies."
We returned to the Hogwarts pyramid. As the first half of our group had poured out of the Black Stone, I shouted to Harry "we caught him and delivered him to Odin. He was half dead."
A roar of cheers rose up from the occupants of the pyramid. "I know many are going to want a meeting of Hermione's committee, but I hope that can wait a day. We've had a difficult and confusing time. By the way, when are we?"
"You've been gone about half a day," Harry answered. "I got your messages and we strengthened our defences. It's a very good thing we did. I'm glad you managed to kill Frijjo. I doubt we could have defeated Frijjo and Vili and a couple of Frijjo's pals in addition to Vili's. I'm am grateful that Adrienne and her child are safe."
I introduced Baalak to the group. He introduced the other two fully adult spiders who had travelled with us, telling Harry that they must return to guard seid-space "just in case." Baalak asked and received permission to attend Hermione's committee meeting.
Harry announced that Neville had agreed to have the Hogwarts Elves feed my team. I told the team that I hoped they would stay until after tomorrow's committee meeting but that everyone should plan on a week off, before we re-assembled to hash over all that had happened and to make plans.
Harry said he realised I likely was beat, but that it really would help if a small group of us met at our house. Harry, Cho, Hermione, Ron, Shacklebolt, McGonagall, and Professor Sturluson, who had somehow been nominated as Tony's representative, while I was off subduing Vili. I had no choice but to agree. Harry seemed pleased. Professor Sturluson seemed even more pleased.
Hermione told Harry that the meeting would have to wait until she was able to arrange for her professor uncle's other professor friend to come and examine 'Narcissa'.
"Yes, that is a most urgent requirement. We can't avoid Draco forever," McGonagall for some reason chose to admonish... me.
It took half an hour for Hermione to pop out and back with both uncle professor and the other professor. Then I was off to my own home. Since Harry didn't want us to stay for Neville's dinner, which was already being served, I hoped we had a big pile of food in the house. I took my chances and Apparated straight back to our home. I brought Aagog with me.
"What's Odin going to do with Vili?" This was from Harry. It was obvious what Harry wanted Odin to do.
"I don't know. He was getting very sentimental. Frijjo's death has rocked him, even though he didn't trust her anymore. Apart from us, Vili may be the only person he can talk to comfortably. I know, I know, but they are brothers, despite Vili's betrayal and Odin locking him away. Odin always made a point of telling me that he did what he had to do, because Vili had become dangerous to all the worlds. I'm sure he has contacts on all of the worlds, including this one, who would give him a safe base if he escaped Odin."
"And Odin may not try overly hard to prevent that escape?" Ron was upset. "You made a mistake turning him over to Odin instead of just killing him."
"You may be right. I'm trying to be a better priestess."
McGonagall told me that she remembered our encounter "way back in 1943. Dumbledore worked some magic on my mind, so that I didn't remember until this morning. Thank you. You have been more my mentor than I yours. Your tricks got me past Tom until I graduated. I think he was a little scared of me."
Harry shot McGonagall a look for that diversion. "What happens to the Quest now?"
"That's what we have to decide tomorrow. I fear that I really need to go back to Vanaheimer and then to Venera. The dark Gods, who really didn't seem as bad as advertised, came to Vanaheimer from, or at least through, Venera. I think there are answers there. I want the Keepers on Vanaheimer to come out of the power struggle in a good position. Perhaps the Council can be an honest partner. The Keepers can help to determine that. I feel a lot is going to change quickly without Frijjo and that it won't be long until all the major actors on Vanaheimer learn of her death. I am not sure that it is wise to resume the Quest. I'm afraid it is more dangerous to quit with so many questions unanswered."
I had to reassure Harry that I had seen and touched Frijjo's body. She really was dead. I told him about our curse for good measure. She had been bitten more than once by very large spiders. No potion was given to her. Odin couldn't have gotten her back to Asgard for at least another hour after I was shown her body and she had already been dead for days. She was cold. Yes, I trusted the spiders. Boldgog and Baalak had been most helpful and selfless. I didn't know if Baalak would even be able to rejoin his brethren on their new world. I didn't know what had happened in Asgard's past. We had aborted Frijjo's plot, but the ancient forest was still mostly gone. It was obvious that there weren't a lot more living Aesir in our time. Something had gone wrong. Perhaps that something was Frijjo. A trip to go back and check was unavoidable. We had to audit several places to be certain Frijjo hadn't completed multiple, major, dangerous changes before meeting her death. She was more adept at navigating seid-space than any of us. She could have visited multiple times before encountering our spider sentries.
Professor Sturluson demanded clarification after clarification. What was Ve's fortress like? How did it kill? How did Frijjo make her 'kill me now' stone safe? If Frijjo could have visited many places and times in the half-day lead she had given herself, why would she go to the most obvious spot for the spiders to focus upon? What was the time of the great fire? Why didn't Frijjo free Ve? He was her first great love. Why would Frijjo choose Narcissa as the person to trip Odin's trap? Didn't that add more risk of her plot failing? If she could just grab up Narcissa, why not Adrienne and the child? What did I suppose she and Vili were doing as they waited for days in Ve's fortress, prior to our arrival? Isn't it strange that Yggdrasil convinced the fortress intelligence that only Odin or I were its true masters, and yet Odin wasn't given early warning of Vili's and Frijjo's early checkout? How could I seriously consider not continuing to Quest? It had suddenly become very interesting once again. He demanded to see the ribbon between worlds in person. Didn't I feel negligent not to have explored it? Why did I believe a transporter on the lower level of the Vanaheimer White Column cavern, which I had never seen, had transported the dark Gods, when surely, they could have just walked the ribbon-between-worlds? Did the ribbon extend to the former Unicorn world, where the dark Gods now resided? Didn't I think it important to answer that question? What would happen to the worlds of reality if seid-space were simply destroyed?
I snapped to attention. That last question had obviously originated with Tony or Stewart. That was not a Professor Sturluson type of question. He would be loathe to destroy seid-space before he had thoroughly explored it. Maybe more questions than just that one. I couldn't argue about the concern with seid. It also frightened me. If I knew that seid-space could be destroyed without harming our space, I'd do it in an instant. Some unknown character just weaving me and my friends out of existence was my greatest fear. That was why even being a good priestess could not prevent me from being pleased that Frijjo and Gna were dead. They had possessed the ability to ambush us from a world and many millennia away.
"How soon will that professor know if the body really is Narcissa?" McGonagall asked Hermione. "We must talk to Draco, tomorrow."
"Probably by the end of the day tomorrow. Yes, we must talk to Draco. The professor needs a sample from him. Draco will demand to know why."
